Could The Avengers save John Carter?

David Konow, 9th May 2012

Reaction to The Avengers has been the exact polar opposite of John Carter, which is really quite a shame because genre fans really did enjoy the movie in spite of its less than stellar reviews and dreadful box office returns.

Of course, Hollywood is all about the opening weekend, and like they say in the biz, if that parachute doesn’t open, you’re dead.

Of course, there’s overseas box office, which a lot of studios are now relying on, and DVD, Blu-Ray and video on demand, but there may be a last ditch attempt going on to try and save John Carter off the coat-tails of The Avengers.

As the Hollywood Reporter tells us, John Carter, which was left for dead by Disney and chairman Rich Ross his job, actually went up the box office charts again.

Huh? A movie that came out back on March 9? This is May already. How’d this happen? Apparently we have the drive-ins to thank for this. What?! There’s still drive-ins left?! This story’s getting stranger and stranger…

So apparently the deal is there are still drive-ins, even I didn’t realize they were still in business, and at 150 double-bills where John Carter and The Avengers are playing on double-bills, the film went up from number 38 on the box office charts to number 12, grossing another $1.5 million, going up 1,223% over the previous weekend.

As we’ve reported here on TG, apparently film festivals are coming back with a vengeance this summer, with the Marvel film festival selling out over a month in advance, and Planet of the Apes marathons and a 1982 genre film fest coming soon at the Alamo Draft House in Texas.

Even I believed drive-in double bills were long gone, I had no idea we even had any drive-ins left, but apparently The Avengers did such amazing business, it actually helped put a few extra bucks in the John Carter coffers. It’s also going to be interesting to see how Carter will do in the home video markets, and if it can finally find its audience there on June 5.